Monday, July 28, 2008

Is it possible to make the house color do everything? I want the cabin to be sharp, to look good, to have a meaningful presence. At the same time I want it to blend in with the forest, the future gardens and the atmosphere of the place. I don't want the cabin colors to shout at me.

I painted all the colors together on the front roof section's plywood sub-wall and added the metal rake flashing as a test and I was not wowed. Was I supposed to be wowed?

I think the colors work together, though I may have been too afraid of a stronger yellow. The subtle yellow of the 'Crafted White' is barely distinguishable.

The darker walls with the lighter trim and roof will pull the eye up to the double, steep pitched roofs that mimic many a baptist church front in these parts. All holy white was out of the question. These colors will fit in with the little chapel in the woods effect that I want to maintain and hint at. I think they are growing on me.

The doors can blue or red or green or maybe even a terracotta golden orange to go with the floors inside. The floor's look is determined. The actual material is still a bit up in the air.

This cabin and the land that surrounds it will be my sanctuary. The cabin's colors are supposed to make me and my guests feel that.

So how can this Turk's Cap Lily be so blatantly orange and look right at home

Hi Christopher, it looks so good, but like Chuck, no Yellow is showing up as the trim color. Maybe go stronger? What is the botanical name for that lily? I want some! The great thing about the door color is how easy it will be to change. Mine has been, red, grass green and now blue, oh and chartruese too. That orange turk's cap color would be pretty cool.

I like your colors and agree with you and the others that changing the door if you change your mind (or want a change later) is easy and will have a big impact.I am interested in your floor materials dilemma; what materials are you considering? We recently installed (ourselves) old fashioned white oak flooring and, although quite labor-intensive, I like it MUCH better than the pre-finished or fakey laminate-type stuff. It has a warmth in our knotty pine-paneled house that is very cozy.

I second the white oak, it is what we have also, but be forewarned, don't put wood in the kitchen. We have been living in a hotel for the last week and a half due to a minor leak under the kitchen sink. The entire contents of the main house, excluding bathrooms, laundry and greenhouse which are tiled, is in two PODS sitting in front of the house on the street. The whole thing had to be sanded and refinished at a cost of many thousands. Insured with a $500 deductible, but the disruption of life is unbelievable. I would never put wood in a kitchen again, no matter how good it looks, and it does look good. Of course the new stain and finish is even prettier than before, but what a pain to be in this hotel. Just to let you know.

The laminates for the floor were discarded early on because they look fake and second you can't get water on them. Half the cabin is kitchen and bath and I can not see keeping either the front or rear kitchen door water free with all this rain and snow and gardening. Because the place is so small there will be one flooring for the whole thing.

Call me strange, but I am not fond of wood floors and did not want an interior full of wood and a typical woodsy cabin. I have a lot of art that needs drywall walls to be displayed to best effect.

Ceramic tile was my first choice until I spent the winter here on some cold tile floors in the kitchen and bath. Eeek went my feets! The cabin is elevated off the ground and I was concerned about cold floors even with R-38 insulation in the floors.

This was were Duraceramic came in. It is a limestone vinyl slurry with the look and feel of tile, but not as cold to the feets. How this is more expensive than tile is hard to understand. Then I read a thread online about Duraceramic and people having problems with the corners chipping and the tiles being easily cut by dropping things and I am back to tile with a nice pair of house slippers.

The link should take you to a Duraceramic Cambridge tile. The Fired Golden Clay is the one I like. Now I just need to find that in a real tile. That shouldn't be a problem.

So tile floors and drywall walls. Then the next color choosing dilemma will commence for the walls. Inside there will be a better chance of bold color.

Oh Christopher I love that tile color. If not warm to feets, then warm to the eye. It will go with anything too. You should easily be able to find something similar in real tile. Remember, dark grout! So much easier to keep clean. I can't wait to see your art! We might be able to get back into the house tomorrow. Oh how I will miss the Hampton Inn, not. Really it's not too bad here, just missing my own life and garden.

Yeah, second the dark grout! We scrub my white (yes, sealed) grout with a toothbrush to little avail. Why spend time on such crap when one could be gardening?Your floor reasoning appears carefully thought out and perfectly appropriate. Good thing you researched the Duraceramic - sounds like the name is an oxymoron!

Did you consider cork floors at all? I have been looking at them recently, and liked them much more than I thought I would. I love stone floors - but this would be warmer - and from what I've read, might tolerate a bit of water. Their 'look' is pretty distinctive, so might not be what you're after - but if you haven't looked at the options, you might want too.

It's fascinating to see you deal with the choices, Christopher - and all the advice ;-]"Dark Grout" was going to be my comment, too - but then I got distracted by Frances and her wooden floor disaster. The fired golden clay looks wonderful for your house.

A warm golden color looks especially wonderful to someone stuck with the previous owners' choice of white ceramic 12" squares with pink and blue and metallic grey swirly stuff as the design.

Christopher, If you like cork flooring, try pricing it at a place called Lumber Liquidators. I believe they have one in Asheville (not sure if you can order from them online). They have excellent products and are very competitively priced. We bought some wood flooring from them and are very happy with the product. They had cork flooring as well. My vote would be to go with whatever is easiest to keep clean and looking nice. I know I am forever cleaning the floors from dirt that is tracked in from the outside.

Easiest to keep clean says it all and most durable comes next Siria. I am tidy and organized, but I am not a clean freak. I appreciate a floor that can mask a little dirt and in such a small space with me tramping all over the mountain I need a floor that can take that kind of abuse/traffic.

Lisa the more I google Duraceramic, the more bad things I read about it. It is a limestone vinyl slurry attached to a base that looks like pressed cardboard. The stuff looks wonderful, just like tile and isn't as cold as tile which was why it was an option. I just don't think it would survive in this situation. The care instructions said to wipe up water immediately and to be sure to keep snow and wet from entering at the doors. Like that is gonna happen.